Dhara’s speech to Electrifying Growth Half-Day Conference:
Along with our partners SSE Energy Solutions, on behalf of Energy UK I’d like to welcome you all to our first Electrifying Growth Conference. And a massive thanks to SSE for making this event possible.
We have a wonderful agenda for the afternoon, and I’m very confident that this event will prove to be a great success.
The importance and urgency of electrifying our economy is only going to increase in the coming months and years. Indeed, the recent conflict in the Middle East illustrates this very point.
Accelerating the expansion of electrification across our economy is crucial. I fervently hope that we’re going to avoid a repeat of the record price spikes the UK experienced after the invasion of Ukraine. But there is no doubt that this is another sharp reminder of our vulnerability to geopolitical developments. Events which we cannot control or even necessarily predict – which often happen suddenly – and with consequences that start impacting our economy almost immediately.
It is still too early to tell how the current situation will feed through to energy bills in the UK for the majority of customers. Households are unlikely to experience a significant price increase until at least the summer, and those on a fixed deal will also have their rate locked in for the remainder of their contract. But should current gas prices remain as high as they are for several more weeks, it is likely that they could have a material impact on future price caps.
New fixed deals do however have to reflect the latest price movements and given the current price volatility, it is very challenging for suppliers to price deals for the next 12 months and beyond. This is true for both household and business customers, and will be something that I know our panellists and speakers will be thinking about during the course of this afternoon.
That this is happening so soon after the last crisis, with accompanying concerns about rising bills and wider economic effects, as well as energy security and resilience, demonstrates the importance of reducing our reliance on gas, and fast-tracking our journey to become a country – and an economy – powered by our own sources of clean electricity.
Gas plays an incredibly important role in our energy system and I’m very proud that Energy UK represents all of the major power generation technologies, including gas. It is true that gas will continue to be crucial for the UK for many years to come. But it is also true that reducing our dependence on gas is crucial if we’re to deliver on the promise of both energy security and stable, predictable, lower bills.
It was not so long ago that the Government spent over £40 billion to support households and businesses with energy bills that would otherwise have reached unprecedented levels. Despite this intervention, many businesses – often more exposed to energy price volatility and still recovering from the pandemic – were hit hard.
Energy UK and the CBI recently announced a partnership and a taskforce focused on reforms that could bring down energy bills and support long term business resilience. We’ve called for urgent action to cut persistently high energy costs along with a national strategy to reduce bills.
Energy has a central role in the economy, and for too long high prices have contributed to damaging the UK’s competitiveness and holding back growth.
To avoid this happening again, delivering on the promise of the energy transition is essential. Increasing our own clean power technologies is the only credible route to long‑term energy security in an increasingly unstable world – and the only path to stable, predictable bills in the decades ahead.
This doesn’t diminish the scale of the challenge. But, as recent events remind us, it’s no longer work that we can afford to delay.
That means continuing to invest in new generation, strengthening our infrastructure, and supporting the uptake of clean technologies across homes, transport, and businesses. It’s a major transformation.
We’ve already made remarkable progress in reshaping our power system – advances that would have seemed implausible not long ago. We should recognise that success while acknowledging that becoming a true “electrostate,” as Chris Stark puts it, is still a work in progress.
The recent AR7 auction results mark another significant step in expanding our clean power capability. And work has begun on a substantial and overdue upgrade to the networks that transport this energy and connect customers – something which the connection queue reforms have highlighted.
The Government has taken important steps to remove barriers and accelerate progress, but we must now match that focus on the demand side: ensuring more businesses and households can engage with the energy transition, and benefit from abundant clean energy.
And that’s where much of the debate today will centre. What are the opportunities for critical sectors of the economy and what do businesses need to access these? How can electrification drive regional growth, and where have we already made progress? How will the necessary infrastructure be delivered while we also manage competing demands for the supply chain and workforce?
It’s also vital that we support SMEs to grow and prosper. Too often discussions about energy costs and the transition focus on large industrial users, yet SMEs are the backbone of our economy: the local hairdresser, the chip shop, the supermarket, the gym, the sports centre, the dental practice.
These businesses need help to invest in clean technologies. It isn’t realistic to expect them to find the time or expertise to navigate this alone. Many understand the long‑term benefits, but immediate financial pressures make it difficult to act. They need clear support, simple pathways, and practical help to take advantage of the opportunities the transition offers.
Electrification is central not just to energy security, but to delivering economic growth. It attracts investment, supports high‑quality jobs, and strengthens productivity across every region.
Businesses gain directly from smarter, cleaner energy systems. Smart assets help them use electricity when prices are lowest and earn additional revenue by providing flexibility services. Retailers are already offering tools and tailored advice that help businesses cut waste, invest in the right technologies, and reduce their energy bills.
Our members are supporting businesses to adopt electric vehicles, efficient heating, thermal storage, and innovative time‑of‑use tariffs. These technologies are far more efficient than the fossil alternatives and can deliver substantial cost savings when deployed well.
More organisations are also installing solar panels and batteries, giving them the ability to generate and manage their own power. As more businesses, homes, and vehicles electrify, costs are shared more widely: strengthening the whole system and reinforcing the case for growing clean electricity demand.
Last summer, the Modern Industrial Strategy set out clean energy as a priority sector at the centre of the UK’s growth story. The Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan is targeting at least a doubling of current investment levels in the frontier Clean Energy Industries to over £30 billion per year by 2035.
There is a crucial role for the Energy UK members when it comes to supporting business customers – not least with the cost of navigating energy bills today, whilst embracing the opportunity of the energy transition.
We know the ambition is there. And I hope that we all make the most of that ambition this afternoon, with a fantastic line-up of speakers and panellists – I’m very grateful to all of them for taking part.
And of course, I must thank the brilliant Energy UK events team. Many of you will be regular attendees of our Annual Conference and I can tell you that planning for that event starts more or less the day after the previous one’s finished! The timescale for this event has been rather more concise – so I’m even more grateful to them for all the hard work that’s gone into this.
I hope you all enjoy this event. It’s both timely and crucial.
I’m now delighted to hand over to Nikki Flanders, Managing Director of Energy Customer Solutions Manging from our event partners SSEN Customer Solutions.